true Church to be injured. Ferdinand
was no time-server--no hypocrite. He was a genuine bigot, sincere and
conscientious. Animated by this spirit, although two thirds of the
inhabitants of Styria were Protestants, he banished all their preachers,
professors and schoolmasters; closed their churches, seminaries and
schools; even tore down the churches and school-houses; multiplied papal
institutions, and called in teachers and preachers from other States.

Matthias and Ferdinand now seemed jointly to reign, and the Protestants
were soon alarmed by indications that a new spirit was animating the
councils of the sovereign. The most inflexible Catholics were received
as the friends and advisers of the king. The Jesuits loudly exulted,
declaring that heresy was no longer to be tolerated. Banishments and
confiscations were talked of, and the alarm of the Protestants became
intense and universal: they looked forward to the commencement of the
reign of Ferdinand with terror.

As was to be expected, such wrongs and perils called out an avenger.
Matthew Henry, Count of Thurn, was one of the most illustrious and
wealthy of the Bohemian nobles. He had long been a warm advocate of the
doctrines of the Reformation; and having, in the wars with the Turks,
acquired a great reputation for military capacity and courage, and being
also a man of great powers of eloquence, and of exceedingly popular
manners, he had become quite the idol of the Protestant party. He had
zealously opposed the election of Ferdinand to the throne of Bohemia,
and had thus increased that jealousy and dislike with which both
Matthias and Ferdinand had previously regarded so formidable an
opponent. He was, in consequence, very summarily deprived of some very
important dignities. This roused his impetuous spirit, and caused the
Protestants more confidingly to rally around him as a martyr to their
cause.

The Count of Thurn, as prudent as he was bold, as deliberate as he was
energetic, aware of the fearful hazard of entering into hostilities with
the sovereign who was at the same time king of all the Austrian realms,
and Emperor of Germany, conferred with the leading Protestant princes,
and organized a confederacy so strong that all the energies of the
empire could with difficulty crush it. They were not disposed to make
any aggressive movements, but to defend their rights if assailed. The
inhabitants of a town in the vicinity of Prague began to erect a church
for P